As I remember it, although there had been many firefighters give up their lives for others, there had not been such a large loss of firefighters going back to the Walbaums Supermarket fire in Brooklyn, NY of 1978.

The night of this Worcester fire there were special reports coming out on the television of six Worcester firefighters missing and unaccounted for. As later reports came out it was becoming clear to see that if those firefighters were still in that large warehouse, they didn't have a chance of getting out. As the flames broke out through the roof, I remember seeing live video of a building with no windows to escape from. It was a building designed with interior walls made of a cork like material to insulate food being stored there.

On the day of the funerals, the City of Worcester, population of about 170,000 and Massachusetts second largest city, had basically shut down to honor these firefighters. For roughly 25 miles out side of that city, just about every bill board had a sign on it thanking the Worcester Firefighters and Honoring these lost members. The main street in downtown Worcester had a funeral procession of firefighters (and police officers) from throughout the entire world. Never before had the downtown streets of Worcester reached a state of silence and quietness as these thousands of police and firefighters walked by. Everyone was just in total silence, except for those you could hear crying.

As I remember, just prior to this incident, the FDNY had a LODD of a firefighter. It was that incident that led to what is known today as a FAST or RIT Company assigned solely to help firefighters on the scene. This Worcester incident brought that out on a national level and it played into the forming of these companies for any serious incident.

It was because of those two incidents that I believe we now have a FAST or RIT Company assigned.